Softball is the first sport up to bat. On Sunday, September 22, teams of students, faculty, staff and alumni played the first round of softball games. According to Madison and Taylor Spikes, senior intramural interns and sisters, softball participation is at its highest with 13 teams of at least 13 players. Softball games are Sundays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Teams start in round robin play, then move to bracket play until the championship game on October 27.

Intramurals are “a good outlet for students to be active and lead a healthy lifestyle,” Madison Spikes said. It’s an opportunity to get a great workout while having fun, she added. With a laugh, she said her sore legs were a clear indicator of just how good a workout her first softball game was.

Intramurals also provide a great way to meet new people, Taylor Spikes said. All students, faculty, staff and alumni are welcome and encouraged to participate. In fact, one softball team is made up entirely of faculty members. Individuals interested in playing can email the intramural interns at intramurals@vanguard.edu to be placed on a team. Along with the Spikes sisters, junior Nick Frumkin and senior Tom Sutton are intramural interns.

Looking to the future, the Spikes sisters said the program is hoping to eventually expand beyond the Vanguard University campus. The goal is to work with other schools to setup an opportunity for the champion intramural teams to not only win on their campus, but also to beat intramural teams at other schools too, Madison Spikes said. As part of the push to improve Vanguard’s intramural program, SGA recently hired a coordinator of intramurals, Jon Krapivkin. Whatever the future holds for Vanguard’s intramurals program, it will be “bigger and better every year,” she said.

http://2pqn-5bjp.accessdomain.com/about/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/logo-300x137.png00Mel Smithhttp://2pqn-5bjp.accessdomain.com/about/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/logo-300x137.pngMel Smith2013-09-26 15:18:462013-09-26 15:18:46Big plans for this Year and the Future of Intramural Sports

This season will include: Narnia, Dancing at Lughnasa, The Little Match Girl/The Gift of the Magi, Oedipus Rex and The Music Man.

The season kicked off on Friday, September 20, with Narnia’s opening night. Narnia is a musical revue from the magical world of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. The book, music and lyrics are by Jules Tasca, Thomas Tierney and Ted Drachman. Vanda Eggington is directing the show. Upcoming shows are September 26-29 and October 4-6.

Following soon after Narnia’s final performance, Dancing at Lughnasa by Brian Friel will run October 25-27, 31, and November 1-3. Chair of the theatre department Susan K. Berkompas is the director. It is a drama that is painted against the backdrop of boyhood memories and dreams.

For the end of the fall semester, Christmas time, Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Match Girl and Jon Jory’s adaptation of The Gift of the Magi will be presented together. These two holiday classics reveal the humbling and heartwarming truths of Christmas. Kevin Slay is the director and they will play December 5-8 and 12-15.

Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex starts in the spring semester: February 28, March 1-2, 6-9. It is a classic drama that timelessly spreads great storytelling across the millennia. Berkompas will direct this play as well.

Eggington will direct the final show, The Music Man, a Broadway musical that harkens back to the innocence and romance of Smalltown, USA. The book, music and lyrics are by Meredith Willson.

The three-day anniversary celebration of the Global Center for Women and Justice (GCWJ) started with a hopeful message from Sandie Morgan during chapel on Thursday morning, September 19. Addressing a few hundred eager Vanguard students, Morgan told them she was inspired early on by her father’s advice that she can do anything she works hard to do. Her father would be proud.

The momentum of Morgan’s sentiment expressed at chapel earlier that morning continued into Thursday evening as dozens of people gathered at the Newport Lido Theater in Newport Beach to view Girl Rising. Directed by Academy Award nominee Richard Robbins, the documentary tells the stories of nine girls from nine countries who each face extraordinary circumstances to achieve something many Americans take for granted every day: life, liberty, and justice.

Following the documentary, Morgan explained to the audience that when she first viewed Girl Rising she was disappointed that she did not have the opportunity to discuss her feelings and reactions. In order to prevent anyone from feeling as she did, Morgan setup a panel to allow the audience to share their thoughts and feelings as they processed the sobering content of the film. The panel included Morgan and two experts: Cory Trenda, senior area director for WorldVision and Ruthie Hanchet, GCWJ board member and expert in child protection and children’s rights. Dr. Andy Stenhouse, dean of the Graduate and Professional Studies (GPS), moderated the panel.

A more festive mood came on Friday evening, as Vanguard students, faculty, staff and administrators congregated in the rotunda of the Heath building to celebrate the GCWJ’s inception ten years earlier. With the help of Assistant Vice President of Development and alum Justin McIntee, four visually rich panels, each displaying messages about the key components in the Center’s evolution, were unveiled. Attendees also enjoyed cake and other treats as if attending a birthday party for a very special friend.

On Saturday, September 21, the last of the celebratory events took place at the Balboa Bay Club’s Grand Ballroom. With KOCE-TV/PBS SoCal’s Ed Arnold as emcee, approximately 300 guests attended the More Priceless than Diamonds luncheon. Community leaders such as Kathleen Eaton of Birth Choice Health Clinics, and politicians such as Congressman Ed Royce, Mayors Keith Curry of Newport Beach and Bruce Whitaker of Fullerton, attended the luncheon.

Set against a beautiful white, luminous backdrop that evoked images of innocence and purity, keynote speaker Ernie Allen, founder and president/CEO of the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (IMEC), spoke about the sobering reality that child trafficking for sex has been on the rise locally and globally since the proliferation of the Internet. Allen is a world leader in the fight against child abduction, sexual exploitation, sexual violence and human trafficking.

Allen dispelled five myths about trafficking: the somewhere else myth, somebody else myth, victimless crime myth, street crime myth and women’s issue myth. Trafficking is a pervasive issue that is not limited to any specific region, area or type of people; it’s everywhere. Allen also talked about the need to “attack the demand” for such an “easy, low risk, extremely profitable and re-sellable” commodity.

Overall, the GCWJ’s three-day anniversary celebration was a success in numbers and in impact. In total, the Center raised $75,000 in proceeds from ticket sales, sponsorships and the live auction held during the luncheon. GCWJ Director Morgan encouraged attendees at all the events to get involved. “We are not the same. We all need each other,” she said.

Hors d’oeuvres, violin strumming and members of the Vanguard University community filled Scott Courtyard on Thursday, September 12, for the Endowed Scholarship Event.

At the event, many students were able to meet the donors who provided their scholarships and thank them. According to Vanguard student and scholarship recipient Kristen Achziger, Vanguard University’s president, Dr. Michael Beals, gave an inspiring message about having a “posture of gratitude.” President Beals thanked contributors and shared some of the history of past Vanguard students.

Achziger, a senior communications major, received an Alumni Endowed Scholarship. “Thank you doesn’t begin to cover it,” she said. Looking back on the event as a whole, she said: “It shows me what it’s like to serve Vanguard students when I graduate and become an alumni.”

To learn more about Vanguard’s endowed scholarships and how to participate, click here.

With a record 700 participants, this year’s City Serve stretched its reach to even more areas of need in Orange County. On Saturday, September 14, Vanguard University students, faculty and staff experienced the joys of serving their community and seeing God work through their service.

This year, participants were able to choose from 18 different outreaches. Outreaches varied from working with specific organizations to providing wax and water for surfers at local beaches. Providing free parking for people at the beach, dancing with residents at a convalescent home, planting trees in a local park and packing boxes of food for families in need are only a few examples of the service teams did.

Along with an overall greater number of participants, this year’s City Serve had the largest number of faculty, staff and administration participants. Vanguard University’s President, Michael Beals, and his wife, Faith, joined a group that helped with event preparations, cleaning and maintenance at Krochet Kids’ facility.

After finishing their service projects, participants came back to campus for a lunch at the school. Many participants returned with stories of not only the impact they were able to have on the community, but also the impact the day had on them personally. “My favorite part of the day was getting to stand near the entrance to the café as teams returned and hear their stories,” said Kayli Hillebrand, associate director of outreach.

One group’s story came from service they did outside of their assigned task. While passing out promotional flyers for Convoy of Hope’s upcoming service event, one group of students came across a single mother and her two barefooted children. After speaking with the mother, giving her a flyer and encouraging her to come to the event, the students began to leave. Feeling God prompting them to do more, they turned back and asked the mother if they could buy her and her kids shoes and some toys. The mother was surprised and very grateful as she accepted the gifts. “I’m not sure who was touched more – the mom or our students,” Hillebrand said.

“My heart for this event has always been for our campus to grasp how simple loving our neighbors can be,” Hillebrand said. “Our city has so many phenomenal opportunities to partner with the Lord and the body of Christ in bringing about change for His Kingdom and I hope that our campus will dive in with both feet.”